Eden Green’s best friend, Veronica, disappeared and suddenly has super human abilities including a remarkable healing speed. Veronica’s new friend, Tedrin, paints the sudden change in their friend as an immortality that Eden can have as well, but is immortality all it’s cracked up to be? Is there more to Tedrin and this sudden enhancement than meets the eye.

The author, Fiona Van Dahl, sent me a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I love superhero books and movies. Average folks, who suddenly develop abilities that can either be used to help or hinder mankind whether by personal evolution or radioactive spider, just interests this reader. When someone becomes unstoppable which road will they take? At the heart of it this book is a psychological study of humanity. Eden Green fits perfectly into the “quiet desperation” wheelhouse as a girl makes a pledge to protect her fellow man from contaminated blood that will change them in unanticipated ways.

Eden Green is a really good idea. The story is unique and the plot twists fresh. The characters authentic and not wholly likable. Veronica is shallow, and meanwhile, Eden is an analytical thinker and perhaps overly disconnected from her subject in her scientific role. The story is not for the faint of heart. Eden Green contains graphic violence and self-mutilation. There are dark and awful creatures roaming the cityscape that must be stopped, and Eden is convinced by Tedrin to help track them. She’s suspicious of him from the start and the way he is written conveys to readers that she has reason to worry about her closest friend. Some of the dialogue is worn and clichéd, but the idea brings the readers along and leads us to dismiss the gaff like a tired villain twirling his mustache.

Van Dahl is a skilled writer and Eden Green is a clearly well thought out work of fiction. The flow does slow slightly after the first few chapters but will keep readers interested in the subject matter engaged. There were some plot holes that read less as mistakes and more as staging for future works.

If you’re interested in sci-fi horror, give this one a shot. Eden Green is not a story you’ve read before.